Draft

Draft Log

Early Picks

P1p2: Hypnotic Sprite//Mesmeric Glare vs. Golden Egg. Ahh the classice Eldraine tension. The powerful card that verges on a 2-for-1 or the generic cantrip that fixes. I think the power level of the Sprite is worth it, but just barely.
P1p10: After dabbling in blue, this is where the red playables start to flow. Nothing epic, but seemed fine. Also some white, but nothing better than Youthful Knight.

Self-Assessment

Felt like a smart draft, ending up in red. There was a lot of white, but nothing to every really encourage me to get into white. No Ardenvale Tacticians, or Trapped in the Tower. The Arcanist Owl in P2p7 felt bad, but the red came back in pack 3 and once again there wasn’t a top white common to be found. So that felt vindicating. Unfortunately I only have 4 two-drops and 4 three-drops, so it’s not AGGRO-aggro.

Deck

Results

• Round 1 vs. R: We both landed a Torbran, which is a little funny. But for whatever reason, oppo wasn’t blocking so I alpha’d them with a Boulder Rush (the +2/+0 trick on the 3/1). In game 2, I switched to mid-range (sigh) but stabilize until oppo’s Rampart Smasher (5/5). I totally forgot that my knights can’t block them…but so did oppo! Unfortunately it was still not enough. Game 3, oppo flooded hard, but my flood was mitigated quite nicely by the Merchant of the Vale. So you know, that’s a thing that can help too.
• Round 2 vs. BW: oppo led off with two Reave Souls. Oppo then misclicked and put their combat trick on my creature. Then they landed a second Resolute Rider, Ayara, and churning out rats with a Piper. It was a brave fight, but a recurred Resolute Rider (with a bazillion mana to back it up) proved to be too much. In game 2 I keep a 1-lander with two Merchant of the vale and a Thrill. I sort of get there, but the Oathsworn Knight (how many rares does oppo’s deck have?) ground me down and then Memory Theft 2-for-1 me and it was all over.
• Round 3 vs. BG: We race, but their tempting Witch does a good job of throwing food at me to finish me off. In game 2, I kept a deeply mediocre 2-land hand only to get thoroughly punished with no land for 4 turns (and a Haggle). Wait, make it 6 turns. And then drew a third island. So yeah, maybe a loser of a keep. But yikes.

Learnings

Felt like this deck deserved to go 1-2. Really not much more to say.

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